Miami Showband massacre survivor says horror of that night will never leave him
Almost 50 years ago, on July 31, 1975, Stephen was seriously injured and witnessed the brutal murders of three band mates in one of the most notorious incidents of The Troubles
Almost 50 years ago, on July 31, 1975, Stephen was seriously injured and witnessed the brutal murders of three band mates in one of the most notorious incidents of The Troubles.
As The Miami were returning to Dublin from a gig in the North that summer, they were stopped by a loyalist paramilitary group outside Newry.
As the band members stood beside their van, two UVF men attempted to plant a bomb inside it, with the intention that it would explode as the Miami continued their journey to Dublin.
The extremists were trying to portray the hugely popular showband as Republican bomb-smugglers working on behalf of the IRA. What ensued was carnage as a bomb prematurely went off while the paramilitaries were planting it in the group's bandwagon.
The scene in the aftermath of the attack
Only two of the five band members, Stephen and Des Lee, survived the horrific slaughter after being left for dead.
Singer Fran O'Toole (29) and musicians Tony Geraghty (23) and Brian McCoy (23) were shot as they begged for their lives. Two of the paramilitaries also died in the explosion. Stephen, who was then only 24 and had heard his bandmates pleading to be spared before being murdered, says his personality was completely changed by the atrocity.
Miami Showband massacre survivor Stephen Travers can never distance himself from the atrocity
Today's News in 90 Seconds - May 5th
He says: 'I was diagnosed several years ago with Enduring Personality Change, something I had never heard of. Basically, you go into an incident one person and come out another person. The psychiatrist said: 'It is so intense it changes you completely.'
'My wife, Anne, said 'I learned to live with and love a different person.' Without her I wouldn't be here today. She was only 21 at the time.'
Stephen tells the Sunday World that he can never distance himself from the shocking events of that night, which will be marked by a major memorial concert featuring legendary Irish musicians in Dublin's Vicar Street on September 28, with all proceeds going to the Irish Cancer Society.
Atrocities happening around the world, particularly in Gaza, trigger his own personal experiences.
'I can intensely feel the hurt,' Stephen says solemnly. 'When you see bodies blown up all over the place on the ground, I've seen that. I crawled for the best part of an hour on the field trying to avoid the body parts of the men who were after trying to kill us to get to our own lads… trying to stand up and falling down. So I know what these people are going through.
Thousands turn out for the funeral of Fran O'Toole in Bray, Co Wicklow in 1975
'People talk about flashbacks and memories and things like that. I don't have flashbacks and memories, it's always there.
'PTSD for me is to be drawn too close to that, where it is a trigger that is very difficult to pull yourself away from it. But if you do want to talk about it you can actually look at that and see it happening and actually tell the story in real time.'
And how do you feel afterwards? 'Sometimes it can be really, really draining because you are reliving the trauma in real time.'
Stephen says people are in danger of being desensitised to the suffering of people caught up in war zones when it's constantly in the news.
'I know we have to see it, but the danger is we are normalising it,' he says. 'The minute the newscaster says, 'In Gaza today…' you expect to see bodies and children crying and people being rushed into hospitals without limbs.'
The Miami Showband Massacre, which has been the subject of a Netflix documentary, will never be forgotten in the history of Irish music.
'We are written into the history books for all the wrong reasons,' Stephen acknowledges. 'I'd rather if we weren't, but if we are then we are going to turn our story into something good… that it can show us the futility of violence, the horror of sectarianism, bigotry and all of these things and that there is a much better way.'
In September, Stephen will publish a self-written book of his remarkable journey in life and the tragic events that shaped it. Called The Bass Player, Anthem For The Innocent, it is also set to be the source of a major new documentary currently in discussions.
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